The government's plan to increase the education budget to 20 percent of state expenditure, or around Rp 224.44 trillion (approximately US$24.45 billion), in 2009 has raised expectations that free basic education for all can finally materialize. But the plan looks to raise false hopes as National Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo said later that the bulk of the budget would go to teachers. Director of Paramadina University's Institute for Education Reform, Utomo Dananjaya, talked about his view of the education budget with The Jakarta Post's Erwida Maulia.

Question: The government has confirmed that despite the big leap in the education budget in 2009, free education for all will remain elusive. What do you think about this? Answer: This is what I think is wrong. The Constitution provides two guidelines on this (in Article 31): First, every citizen must participate in basic education and the government must finance it. And then the country must prioritize at least 20 percent of the state budget for education. Now, what is the fulfillment of 20 percent of the state budget for? As mandated by the Constitution, it should be to organize basic education without charging any fees to students.

But, what the president said was the government (with the huge 2009 education budget), would only make education affordable and not free of charge. Affordable, however, is relative. Affordable for who?

The consequence of this is that schools are still given opportunities to charge students. Especially, schools and principals in big cities will make use of the chance to continue charging levies, although, I believe, the levies are a waste of money for schools and a burden for students' parents.

It is obvious from his (state of the nation) speech that the President sees the allocation of 20 percent of the budget for education as his goodwill gesture, not his obligation to fulfill people's rights, although the latter is clearly what the Constitution wants.

The fact is the country raise money from taxes; from people. So, the budget for education actually comes from people. But, the President, the Vice President, the finance minister and the education minister don't understand this.

The President needs to be firmer; the central government and regional administrations must organize basic compulsory education that is free of charge. What the Article 31 clause 2 of the Constitution actually says is, the government and regional administrations must organize free of charge education at least at basic level.

The government will increase the School Operational Aid (BOS) funds for elementary and junior high school students, with free textbooks for students from three to five books per student per year. Do you think this will help students?

This is insignificant. BOS funds are not distributed to students, but to schools to finance their activities. BOS cannot free students from charges. The government should tell schools that as the BOS funds go up, schools should no longer charge levies. But, because what the government says is that BOS funds are aimed only at making education more affordable, schools continue charging levies.

The government has received tax money to manage schools, and disburse the BOS funds to actually pay tuition fees and other levies, but even though the BOS funds have been increased, schools continue charging students. This is disappointing.

The education minister says that a large portion of the 2009 education budget would be to pay teachers and improve their welfare. Do you think it's the reason why the government can't meet free basic education for all?

That's not the point. Even though teachers' payments are increased by, let's say, Rp 1 million per teacher per month, salaries for the country's 2.8 civil servants and private teachers will only amount to around Rp 92 trillion, or let's just say Rp 100 trillion. The increasing BOS funds will only consume about Rp 20 trillion and that amount should be enough to free students from levies.

So roughly there is still some Rp 104 trillion left for education management, quality improvement, research etc. Is that not enough?

We believe that the minister needs to be paid, that there needs to be operating costs. But, Rp 104 trillion is so huge. There's no way it is all used up; what is that for?

The government says that school operational costs could still be made free, but not so with investment costs. Is that true?

Yes, investment costs cannot be made free. But, let's look at this: who built the existing school buildings? All schools in this country already own buildings; so investment funds are no longer needed. Okay, some are damaged, but they only account for some 6,500 school buildings out of the country's 200,000 schools. When we say that many school buildings need repairs, the government will deny this, saying that only a few buildings, perhaps some 3 percent, are broken-down. But, when it comes to money, it will say that it needs investment funds; for what then? For buying computers in 200,000 schools? Just count how much it costs; not so big. So, the rest of the investment funds will be used for the lavish bureaucracy. Education management seems to be the most extravagant management; perhaps because of graft.

The government also says basic education can be free if only regional administrations support the funding. Do you agree with this?

The central government is the one who have the money. The Rp 89 trillion general allocation funds (which are disbursed to regions) are to pay teachers, while the special allocation funds (also disbursed to regions) are in fact managed by the central government; that is the source of graft.

The central government has a lot of money: Rp 581 trillion of national revenues, or 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product. It is all controlled by the central government.

Regional administrations, meanwhile, earn only modest revenues, as most taxes are levied by the central government. They collect taxes, but significantly less than the central government's tax revenues. The regional administrations can perhaps only collect property taxes, which can be quite large in Jakarta.